On our first research trip to Houston we had coffee with Ray Hill who suggested that we meet at Mary’s, now Blacksmith Coffee, where he spun the most beautiful tales of Houston’s LGBT history for hours. Once a hub of gay activism as well as nightlife, the transition of Mary’s from a bar with it’s famous mural to a hipster coffee shop is often held up as emblematic of broader societal shifts and the gentrification of the Montrose “gayborhood”.